Commentary: Trump’s outreach to African-Americans mimics David Duke’s
Ron Rogers
Guest Columnist
I’ve been following GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s so-called outreach to African-Americans. I knew it would be a matter of time, after he bashed other ethnic groups, and sure enough, he did turn his attention to African-Americans.
His so-called outreach was to talk about how bad blacks have it here in America under a Democratic president.
Obama, uh, you know he’s the non-U.S. Citizen who tricked Americans to vote him into office, at least that’s what the No. 1 birther in the U.S., Donald Trump, believes, and so do a many in the GOP.
This guy has run a campaign based on racial appeals, and it his worked. Really, Trump’s appeal is aimed at moderate white voters. He could care less about what’s happening in the black community.
His appeal to black voters harks back to 1990 in Louisiana when U.S. Senate candidate David Duke, the white supremacist, made a similar appeal. I was on the staff of The News-Star in Monroe, Louisiana. Duke ran a campaign that was 100 percent about race, no issues.
It’s funny that Duke has come back into the news in the last few days, when GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence refused to denounce Mr. Duke.
What strikes me about Trump’s appeal to blacks is that it was similar to one made by Duke right before the election. He appealed to black voters, saying he was their friend and how bad the Democrats have treated them as a group.
On election night, when he lost, Duke went on T.V. to concede and said he had received the most black votes that any Republican in Louisiana has ever received. That claim was never confirmed.
Now Duke is running for office again because he and his ilk support Donald Trump. Hillary was right about Trump supporters. It’s funny, a guy who claims to be a winner is relying on losers in our society to put him in the White House.
Ron Rogers creates political cartoons for The Chronicle. He has worked at several newspapers nationwide. He was documented as the only African-American political cartoonist on the staff of a daily newspaper when he worked at the South Bend Tribune in Indiana.
